A variety of surgical procedures can require the temporary attachment of strings, wires, nets or devices using clips, to tissue flaps, organs, or organ flaps during retraction, for example. In other procedures, clips may be required to compress, ligate or dissect arteries and veins and ducts such as the common bile duct.
An important factor in the appropriate attachment of these devices is the practicality of the clips that grip tissue and other materials or compress vessels and ducts. For example, to clear a field of view or work area, a segment of the liver may need to be held back in order to perform surgery on a segment of the intestine. This process can be demanding and typically can require an extra person to hold a conventional retractor. This procedure is even more challenging during minimally invasive surgery (MIS) where a trocar port and surgical technician may be devoted primarily to holding tissue back from the field of view or work area. Likewise demanding in MIS are procedures, for example, to ligate or dissect arteries and veins and the common bile ducts. Any clip used in these types of procedures must pass through a trocar and must be easily grasped and opened and closed by typically long shafted MIS graspers in order to be practical. The clip devices described herein meets these requirements.